I retrained as a proofreader in 2005. For more than a decade beforehand I’d worked in a professional publishing environment, specifically in the marketing department of two mainstream academic publishing houses with an international presence. I knew exactly what proofreading was, and what it wasn’t — or I thought I did.

Only a few months into professional practice, my understanding of the skillset I’d chosen to specialize in was challenged. To this day, it is still being repeatedly challenged.

Publishers’ expectations of what a proofread entails match my training and in-house experience, but students, schools, charities, businesses, and beginner-novelists seem to have very different ideas. The term proofreading, far from being straightforward, now appears rather more complicated. Indeed, how one defines proofreading isn’t determined by what one actually does, but rather by whom one talks to.

There's another layer of complexity too. When the job you have in front of you is meant to be a straightforward proofread, but the necessary previous editing hasn't been done, and what you end up doing is more like a remedial copy-edit...

Reply

Louise Harnby

9/2/2016 08:58:37 am

This is especially galling when you are being paid proofreading rates. I've encountered this problem with some publisher clients in the past!